UK nabs four Iranians alleged to have scoped Jewish targets - JNS Staff

 

​ by JNS Staff

Six alleged accomplices also arrested, other sought.

 

Police on patrol on a busy street in London on June 23, 2023. Photo by Damian B Oh via Wikimedia Commons.

British counter-terrorism police arrested four Iranians on Friday, three of whom are also U.K. citizens, on suspicion that they carried out surveillance linked to Jewish communities in London, the Metropolitan Police said.

The four are suspected of assisting a foreign intelligence service, the BBC reported. Another six men, aged 20-49, were arrested in Harrow, in northwestern London, on suspicion of assisting one of the four initial suspects.

One of those six men was further arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement. The arrests and searches were led by Counter Terrorism Policing London, the police said.

The initial suspects are a 40-year-old and a 55-year-old arrested in Barnet, a northern and heavily Jewish part of London, and a 52-year-old and a 22-year-old arrested in Watford and Harrow, respectively. The police are searching for additional suspects in those neighborhoods and in Wembley, they said.

The four men were detained under the National Security Act, which was introduced in 2023 to modernize counter-spying laws, combating foreign interference.

The arrests were part of “a long-running investigation and part of our ongoing work to disrupt malign activity where we suspect it,” Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said in the Met Police statement.

The Community Security Trust, British Jewry’s security unit, thanked police in a statement and added, “Security is strong across the Jewish community.”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned Iran’s actions against “partners across the region” after Israel and the U.S. launched a joint operation against the Islamic Republic on Feb. 28.

“Even in the United Kingdom, the Iranian regime poses a direct threat to dissidents and to the Jewish community,” Starmer said in a videoed speech on Saturday, hours after the operation began.

“Over the last year alone, they have backed more than 20 potentially lethal attacks on U.K. soil,” he added.

Iran is widely believed to have helped plan the AMIA Jewish center bombing in Argentina in 1994, where 85 people died and more than 300 others were wounded.

Last year, Australia expelled Iran’s ambassador, leading to a reciprocal move, over accusations that the Islamic Republic was behind two antisemitic arson attacks in the cities of Sydney and Melbourne.

JNS Staff

Source: https://www.jns.org/uk-nabs-four-iranians-alleged-to-have-scoped-jewish-targets/

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